A false representation of a matter of fact – whether by words or by conduct, by false or misleading allegations, or by concealment of what should have been disclosed – that deceives and is intended to deceive another so that the individual will act upon it to her or his legal injury.
Criminal and civil frauds differ by level of proof required. The former needs a preponderance of evidence. The latter must prove intent and be beyond a reasonable doubt.

Goldman settled SEC charges for pennies on the dollar. What a business. Steal a fortune. Pay a pittance back. Goldman writes it off as operating cost.

Wall Street’s business model reflects fraud and grand theft. Goldman steals with the best of them. Take away dirty money and the whole system collapses. It operates at the expense of investors and societies.

It profits hugely by swindling clients it calls “muppets.” Small time con artists rip off marks. Goldman loots on a grand scale. Even nations are plundered for profits. It makes money the old-fashioned way. It steal and get away with it unaccountably.

No avenue with potential is ignored. It’s an equal opportunity predator. Chairman/CEO Lloyd Blankfein calls it “doing God’s work.” Which one he didn’t say. The Supreme Court ruled he and other Wall Street giants are immune from clients pursuing security fraud charges. Washington alone can sue.

In April 2010, the SEC filed civil, not criminal, fraud charges. Goldman and one of its vice presidents was accused of defrauding investors by misstating and omitting key facts about junk assets tied to subprime mortgages.

Goldman withheld vital information from investors. Doing so let the firm and hedge fund investor John Paulson make huge profits. They correctly bet against the housing market. They were touting junk as safe investments that collapsed.

It settled for pennies on the dollar. It closed the books for $550 million. It amounted to about four 2009 revenue days. It hardly mattered. No executive was fined or imprisoned. Goldman was free to keep stealing. Headlines left details most vital to reveal unexplained. Only scammed clients understand.

In April 2011, the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations released a report on how banking giants, federal regulators, and credit rating agencies conspired to crash the subprime mortgage market.

Around 40% of it discussed Goldman. It sold an alphabet soup of securitized junk. Garbage included mortgaged-backed securities (MBSs), collateralized mortgage obligations (CMOs), and various other assets structured to fail.

Combined, they sliced, diced, packaged, repackaged, and sold them in tranches to sophisticated and ordinary investors. Many bought them unwittingly through mutual funds, 401(k)s, pensions, and other investments.

On August 9, the Justice Department said it conducted “an exhaustive review of the report.” It concluded that “based on the law and evidence as they exist at this time, there is not a viable basis to bring a criminal prosecution with respect to Goldman Sachs or its employees in regard to the allegations set forth in the report.”

In other words, fraud charges don’t matter. Whatever Goldman does is OK. Stealing is how it does business. Obama officials find no fault. Goldman expressed relief it’s all over.

It knows Democrat and Republican Justice Department prosecutors won’t lay a glove on them. It’s free to make money by stealing it.

Its only obligation is regular campaign contribution kickbacks, insider trading tips, other ways for pols to profit and get rich, and financial officials like Bernanke, Geithner, and others at Treasury and the Fed getting sweet revolving door jobs out of Washington when or if they plan to leave.

Each side helps the other. Political and Wall Street crooks conspire to keep a sweet racket going. Corruption is a way of life. Congress, administrations, the judiciary, and scoundrel media go along. Laws are only for ordinary people. Predators are free to prey.

It’s the system, stupid. Profiteering from plunder is too repugnant to tolerate. It’s lawless, dysfunctional, and corrupt. It’s too far gone to fix. Building a world fit to live in requires tearing it down and starting over. Nothing less can work.

(my comment: I cannot understand that the blame is always put on any administration or président. Does nobody is able to understand that all these people of highest level are just BLACKMAILED ??? What about helping all our ‘top 99 / half 1% people’ worldwide to neutralize these balckmailings by the real 0.01% ?
Ok, as we cannot catch directly this too well protected 0.01%, we have to change the structures in a way to make changes possible.
Remember: it is up to the 99 % to force the 1% to help to stop the 0.01% ! To do this, everybody has to be aware what is really going on. So, please, you the top of the 99% knowing what happens, uncover it, shout it out, tell it …
OK?).